You should read this on the NCAA’s terrible racial impact

Once a year or so, someone takes aim at major college sports amateurism and really looses a classic. This one in the Atlantic remains a staple of the genre.

A new must-read, if you haven’t, is this one by Patrick Hruby, focusing on the financial and social results of the two revenue sports being heavily black at the athlete level (half or more of the football players in three Power 5 conferences, as opposed to about 13 percent of the American population in general) when virtually everything else in college athletics is 70 percent or more white, from non-revenue athletes to coaches to athletic directors to NCAA admins to conference commissioners and so on.

That means money being generated largely by black athletes either flows straight into the pockets of white men or to subsidize largely white sports. Degrees are given in exchange for this, and yeah, that part’s extensively addressed.

A part from the end:

Race isn’t the only reason whites oppose pay-for-play, but it’s a major one. In fact, [UMass political science professor Tatishe] Nteta says that negative racial views about blacks were the single most important predictor of white opposition to paying college athletes, with higher levels of resentment corresponding with higher levels of opposition. “We tried to look at factors like interest in college sports, your love of the NCAA, if you were a college athlete, if you were a union member,” he says. “We found that none of that is important. But race can’t be divorced from this story.”

Nteta cautions that his research is preliminary. [...]

A few weeks ago, [sports agent Don] Yee spoke to students and faculty at the University of Virginia’s School of Law, his graduate alma mater. When college sports came up, he noted that most NCAA-level women’s cross-country teams are made up of white runners. He then asked listeners to participate in a thought exercise. Imagine, he said, if those teams brought in millions of dollars. Then imagine if the money mostly went to well-paid black administrators, and to black athletes competing in non-revenue sports. Would that situation be tolerated, let alone tolerated for decades?

Virginia Tech’s wild plan for winning more games is to start scoring points. Luckily, Justin Fuente is highly qualified at getting quarterbacks to advance footballs by making use of competent schemes. So, we’ll see if this idea goes anywhere.

Stephen White says Michigan State lineman Jack Conklin “will cockroach a man.” That sentence alone might not be enough for you to draft him, but that’s because you first have to apply to become an NFL general manager. Once that happens, then you can draft him.

Complaining about USC OVERRATED HYPE inbound, as the stats show the Trojans might have the country’s best receiver for 2016.

Slide this in the direction of anyone who seems to think LSU has the world’s worst offense at all times and always has.

Noted Heisman Trophy snub Dalvin Cook had shoulder surgery, but should be fine for Florida State by fall camp.

West Virginia adds Will Grier, the brother of a Vine star. He’s also the former Florida starting QB who left after a supplements suspension. The Gators had reached a 6-0 record with him at the console.

CROOTIN’: Currently holding the golden ocelot is Arizona, with nine stars’ worth of commits in like 36 hours, including a flip from Northwestern.

Prepare for the Shawn Oakman meme to rear its ominous, opinion-changing head during the draft, when most sports fans gaze upon him for the first time.

UrbanMeyerRudeGate lumbers to a close, as the Kentucky freshman who accused him of a terse scouting report says the original quote was “mistaken.”

Charlie Strong is pleading for any information that may lead to the signing of a kicker for Texas, so we’re offering some stupid ideas. I’ll continue to lobby for Liu Kang.

Oklahoma might’ve had a better team in the 2000s than 2001 Miami. Gotta go!